¿Dónde está el baño?

Chile, Argentina and Dakar!

So a lot of ground has been covered since our last post. After crossing into Chile, we spent a night in Calama and then rode through the Atacama desert to La Serena. The desert stirred up some emotions, just the emptiness of it was overwhelming. We went to one of the European observatories for some start gazing, but were misinformed and could not get accommodations there. Were really disappointed as the night sky must be incredible there…no hotels anywhere in the vicinity. Eventually we made it to La Serena, a town known for it’s beaches, enjoyed a couple relaxing days there and then moved on to Copiapo for DAKAR!! For those that don’t know, Dakar is one of the most grueling and dangerous motorsport races in the world. It’s mostly offroad through some of the harshest terrain…on avaerage 2 people die every year, both drivers and spectators. Motorbikes, SUVs, quads and big trucks all participate.

Our motto of the trip should read, ‘always be unprepared’. Once again we didn’t think things through and could not find any hotels, everything was booked solid due to the race. We spent a whole day in La Serena calling and emailing places but had no luck, lack of communication skills didn’t help matters either. Out of desperation we reached out to one Maria Laura Garrido (a dear friend in Montreal), Lau put in a huge effort calling and coordinating something for us….she found us an entire house! It worked out perfectly. Thanks Lau!

We unloaded our gear from the bikes and immidiately set out to check out the action. As we were riding through the streets, people were lined up on either side awaiting to get a glimpse of the race. But with our heavy bikes, many thought we were part of the race, so we put on bit of a show, smiled and waved as people cheered us. :-) Juergen actually signed an autograph for a small boy in the town square…too funny! The next day we rode to one of the spectator zones in the desert to see race up close, these machines and riders are amazing.

After Dakar we headed for Santiago to meet up with Pablo! I first met Pablo in Brighton, England on my visit to Fred & Linda, we kept in touch and met for dinner and drinks in Chile. He showed us a great night out with his friends, had some good laughs. Santiago was by far the most modern and ‘western’ city we had come across the entire trip, amazing contrast coming from Bolivia which is among the poorest. We hoped to ride further south, but simply ran out of time and had to cross into Argentina…no choice but to go back.

The ride through the Andes to Mendoza was fairly uneventful, roads are great, weather was good…actually found ourselves a little disappointed because subconsciously we were hoping for some dirt. The scenery was beautiful, however not up to par with some other routes we’ve taken, think we just picked the ‘wrong’ route. So for the other bikers coming through this way, I would recommend heading a little further south from Santiago and then crossing over.

Mendoza was great, we got to be somewhat sophisticated and hit the wineries….even put on a fresh t-shirt! We hit 3 vineyards and got the best meal of the entire trip… ARGENTINIAN BBQ ROCKS!! Following Mendoza we headed towards Cordoba, spent 2 nights at a hostel in the capital city where we learned first hand how partying is done….people head out to bars at 2AM!! So you can imagine when the party ends, we made our way home at 7am; needless to say, we didn’t do too much sight seeing. After recovering, we rode to La Cumbrecita, it was like being at an alpine resort minus the snow….absolutely stunning and a great way to spend our last day of the trip before meeting up with the gang in Buenos Aires. The standards in Argentina are completely different compared to most places we’ve been; it’s incredibly clean, infrastructure is great…it feels as though all the roads were built yesterday. People seem to take a lot of pride in keeping it beautiful.

We arrived to an amazing reception in BA yesterday, Jewels, Jay, Audrey, Penny and Mark flew down to meet us, they cheered from the balcony as we rolled into downtown. The arrival in Buenos Aires has been bitter sweet, we feel a sense of accomplishment but could also continue for several more months. We will try to get the shipment of the bikes sorted out the next few days, but I’ve decided to continue on my own for a little longer. Will either bus or fly to Patagonia and then visit Uruguay as well…would love to do it by bike, but it’s 6000 kms round trip and I simply don’t have that kind of time.

It’s been an amazing adventure and we feel privileged to have the means for such a journey.

Manny & Juergen

Pics to come…